An Open Letter to Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, Kashmir University

With great reverences and regards, I would like to bring to your attention, this grave concern regarding the administrative failure of Universities examination wing. I hope you will spare sometime from your busy schedule to go through this letter.

The University of Kashmir was meant to expand the avenues and enhance the higher education in conflict torn valley, but it remains mired in procedural and bureaucratic vacillation. In 2015 academic session, the initiation of semester system under ‘Choice Based Credit System’ (CBCS) was introduced on modern lines, to cope up with the newly approved higher education policy reforms. But the irony is that it proved detrimental in terms of delayed degrees, delay in re-evaluation process, delay in conduct of examinations etc, by which the students were left in a quandary right from the day of their enrollment.

The recently conducted 4th semester Under Graduate examinations has shocked everybody, as most of the degree colleges in Kashmir division had not received the question papers of some skill oriented programs. After some hue and cry by students, the college authorities somehow managed to establish a contact with your controller examinations, who later forwarded the question papers to constituent colleges via social networking site, most of them out of syllabus. This fact is clearly evident, that the officials at universities examination wing were making a mockery of sorts by forwarding the scanned copies of question papers. The controller examinations of the university, being a designated official is promising the college authorities for taking a soft note during evaluation of such answer scripts, who had been published out of syllabus. Such a statement by a distinguished official is utterly shameful.

The under-Graduate students are presently at logger heads with your university over numerous issues. The successive regimes at University of Kashmir have always set a trend of adjusting influential people on top positions, without considering their ability and Annual Progress Report (APR). By way of red-tapism and favoritism, the scenario of academics and research programs at the University of Kashmir is nearly over. I wonder on what basis the University of Kashmir in previous academic session was listed in top 50 Universities in India, by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). If the authorities of (NIRF) will witness such a failure, they will definitely suggest you to take a back seat.

The students now are caught in this antiquated maze of an exclusivist administrative mindset. A large number of students who belong to poor and middle class families are participating in a number of under Graduate non-professional programs for the only fact that they can’t afford a better university. The University Grants Commission (UGC), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), has always, time and again, grilled the Kashmir University authorities for its failure to maintain the academic scenario in the best shape at Kashmir University.

But the onus completely lies on you to adopt a humane approach towards students of this conflict torn valley. I suggest, such officials must be put under the scanner who are found guilty of such negligence’s.

Furthermore, it is your sole responsibility to stop such practices that are denting the image of this prestigious institution. However, something needs to be conveyed to general public from your side as to what was the logic behind forwarding the scanned copies of question papers to students in various colleges during the recently held exams?

(The writer is a freelance Journalist & a member of J&K RTI Foundation)